Odd Birds Take a Road Trip to Survive

Odd Birds Take a Road Trip to Survive

May 19, 2015 - The sage-grouse relies on having an abundant selection of sagebrush to eat and the right habitat for reproduction. But with so much land being repurposed for growing wheat, the bird has been on the decline. To help save the sage-grouse, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has relocated almost 300 birds from Oregon to Washington State, where they hope the grouse population will rise.

When we loose grouse on the landscape, it’s a major uphill
battle. One of the tools that we have available to us is to actually trap and
transplant wild birds from one place to another.

And the state of Washington, because their populations have
been so diminished over time, that they’ve been in this trap and translocate
operation (these conservation actions) for a number of years now. And because
the birds have been doing so well in Oregon and our genetics are very similar
to what’s in Washington, we have been chosen as one of the source populations.

This species absolutely requires sagebrush, and they require
large landscapes of it, because they need options. Greater sage grouse
populations in Oregon today represent really some of the last strongholds for
the species. Unlike the rest of the west where we’ve seen a 50% reduction in
habitat, we’ve only seen about a 30% reduction in Oregon. We largely have vast
intact landscapes of sagebrush.

Michael A. Schroeder
-

Washington historically was a major part of the Sage Grouse
range. We had a lot of habitat here. But
because of so many areas here converted to wheat, we no longer have the birds.

Doing a translocation quite often requires very difficult conditions
because it is dark, it is rocky, a lot of times you don’t know the terrain very
well. Once you find a bird and you’re able to approach it with the spotlight,
once you get really close, we can quickly put a net out and over the bird.

Michael A. Schroeder VO -

“And 1-6-8… Remind me to make sure hankerchiefs are should
required field gear.”

Michael A. Schroeder
-

After processing birds, usually will have somebody drive the
birds back to Washington – it’s usually about a 10 to 12 hour drive. And then
the birds – we’ll keep them over night and release them in the morning.

We look in Washington and we can see the challenges, it’s
obvious because of the transmission lines, the highways, the people, everything
is there.

2008 through 2015, we translocated 279 birds. So far the
results have been fairly positive. Populations higher this year then it was
last year – this makes people very happy. It’s nice to have birds back on that
landscape again.

Odd Birds Take a Road Trip to Survive

May 19, 2015 - The sage-grouse relies on having an abundant selection of sagebrush to eat and the right habitat for reproduction. But with so much land being repurposed for growing wheat, the bird has been on the decline. To help save the sage-grouse, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has relocated almost 300 birds from Oregon to Washington State, where they hope the grouse population will rise.